1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure for mounting a basketball hoop and more particularly to a structure which enables readily detachably mounting a basketball hoop at various selected heights.
2. Description of Related Art
Youngsters typically employ a single basket or hoop mounted on the outside surface of an overhead garage door for a quick neighborhood game of basketball. Since the age of the players varies the hoop should be adjustable in height. It should also be readily removable when the game is over so that the garage door can be raised and lowered for normal use.
Various structures have been patented to provide a system for removably mounting a basketball hoop to fixed structure. U.S. Pat. No. 4,613,135, issued to R. R. Rush, discloses one such device. A receptacle is attached to a basketball backboard and includes laterally spaced apart, vertically oriented channels. A hoop mounting member is slidable within the channels until a bolt on the receptacle engages the end of a slot in the mounting member. A wing nut on the bolt can be operated to clamp the mounting member onto the receptacle. In normal use the hoop mounting member rests upon the top of the receptacle, apparently to provide structural integrity or rigidity and the wing nut and bolt serve as a stop means to establish this position. The hoop mounting member is apparently not designed to be adjustable in height since raising it above its position of rest upon the receptacle exposes its vertical section to bending in order to bear ball impact loads on the hoop. Such exposure to bending is exaggerated the farther the hoop is raised.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,218,058, issued to Hilbert et al., teaches an analogous receptacle, with the slide channels being defined by oppositely disposed, vertically spaced apart pairs of channel sections, making the channels discontinuous. The hoop mounting bracket has to be moved inwardly and downwardly onto a selected pair of channel sections to establish the bracket at a desired height. This combination of movements requires precise bracket positioning, and the bracket would appear to be subject to inadvertent dismounting by sharp upward ball impacts upon the hoop.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,183,522, issued to Killen, is yet another form of hoop mounting structure. A pair of laterally spaced apart vertical standards having a series of vertically spaced slots are attached to a wall or the like. Inwardly and downwardly projecting tongues of four brackets are insertable into selected sets of the slots to secure a large backboard structure to the wall. The hoop mount is fixed to the backboard structure so that a major effort is involved in repositioning the backboard structure to adjust the height of the hoop.